![]() ![]() In 1968, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that equipment that wasn’t made by Bell could be used to connect to the telephone system. It certainly didn’t thrive until the cell phone era, but the the inspiration point for the ringtone as we know it today likely goes back to at least the 1970s, when a regulatory decision made novelty gadgets possible. ![]() Though the success of “Crazy Frog,” the animated amphibian associated with the unavoidable 2005 hit “Axel F,” might make you think otherwise, the ringtone didn’t necessarily start with the cell phone-though, certainly, that was the logical conclusion. Two key touch points in the evolution of the modern ringtone These noises became so common, so much of the fabric of our lives, that they oversaturated the experience of living.Īre we due for a ringtone refresh? Let’s take a moment to ponder how we got to this point. From Nokia to BlackBerry to Apple, every company had one. But that created another problem entirely-the default noise. When our phones shrank to pocket dimensions and their innards integrated into tiny circuits, it allowed us to redefine exactly a ringtone could be. This problem of disruptive, unnatural noises created by our electronics came to a head with the smartphone, and it’s not necessarily Apple’s fault. “I checked all the sounds in the iPhone and I can conclude that many ringtones and sounds are superfluous and incomprehensible.” “I think that most of the ringtones on the iPhone have a sharp sound,” he told me in an email. They annoy him, cutting into the flow of the daily routine just a bit too much for his comfort. ![]() What’s the problem? Well, despite the fact that he doesn’t have an iPhone, he hears these sounds everywhere.
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